Week 5 “Table of Contests”:
Page 1: Festus Tigers at Hillsboro Hawks
Page 2: Fox Warriors at Seckman Jaguars
Page 3: Windsor Owls at DeSoto Dragons
Page 4: Grandview Eagles at Perryville Pirates (Thursday)
Page 5: McCluer North Stars at Northwest Lions
Page 6: Herculaneum Blackcats at Cuba Wildcats
Page 7: Crystal City Hornets at Veritas Christian Academy Eagles
Page 8: Jefferson Blue Jays at Bayless Bronchos
Blowout Gulch: St. Pius Lancers at Caruthersville Tigers
Festus Tigers at Hillsboro Hawks
Mississippi Magazine is combining its recent Friday Night Predictions formats with in-depth previews on Jeff County rivalry bouts, followed by quick-takes on this Friday’s selection of six Dirty Dozen clashes with teams outside county borders. Too bad that still leaves The Gridiron Geek with a fair piece of reporting to do, since there’s a higher total of three county-v-county tilts in Week 5.
Wait – that’s a “higher” total of just three games? It’s crazy that when the blog’s team members started to volunteer in Friday Night Lights in the 2010s, we thought it was natural for U.S. counties with a dozen Varsity schools to combine for seven, maybe eight contests each weekend in midseason. There’s still such a thing as a “Conference Locality,” right? But the sport’s better programs are broadening their focus into state and national borders, and meanwhile, JeffCo has way more independent football going on than ever before. Some of our classic rivalry series have been disappearing, which makes “nine games” into a light week!
Hillsboro versus Festus is a classic rivalry that might never disappear. The old matchup has risen above Herky-Crystal City and Fox-Northwest to become the area’s crown jewel of conference traditions in modern day. Fans used to content ourselves that the Hawks vs Tigers clashes would always be close, even if one campus was a district favorite and the other was a scrappy spoiler, a syndrome that played itself out for dozens of years thanks to the padawans’ passion on the field every time there’s a Festus and Hillsboro date in any sport. Lately, a number of blowout outcomes have turned fan anticipation of Hawks-Tigers in the different direction of hoping for a solid yearly matchup, armed with the knowledge that when it is a good game, it’s a very good one.
Week 5 probably isn’t the climax of this year’s rivalry, or anything close to it. The Tigers and Hawks have only their own excellence to blame! It would take a significant downturn on behalf of one of the Highway A schools not to be matched in Week 12’s district title showdown. Not only do Festus and Hillsboro appear stronger than DeSoto, Sikeston, and North County again in ‘26, but they are also poised to get at least two of the top three seeds in Class 4, District 1, despite Sikeston’s sandbagger points from Dexter and New Madrid County Central. With no other contenders to win a conference title in play, coaches have to decide how much focus should go into winning Friday’s fracas, waged between two “championship” rivals who are really just playing in a bowl game for a trophy, especially when you’re going to want 200% of your organization’s focus trained on winning this November’s district bracket against a field that is really exactly the same as the conference field – plus those pesky Bulldogs. If Festus has been practicing a fancy fast-tempo playbook for dual-threat QB Quinnten O’ Brien, we likely won’t see that in action this September. If Hillsboro’s been prepping a tailback who can ‘Patterson’ the Tigers and gain 250 yards on 25 carries, that’s likely going to be a Week 12 gambit too.
Make no mistake, the Hawks and Tigers will fight extremely hard, looking to gain key midseason momentum by defeating a heated foe. In fact, if Sucharski and A.J. Ofodile’s playcallers cook “Vanilla” against each other, hoping to preserve their secret tactics for District 1, it could help Friday’s players know who the better roster was through four quarters. We may be about to see an exciting, electrifying, and ELEMENTAL 48:00 of basic football from two programs with exceptional talent, making the score into a matter of winning matchups. Which QB will mount his first start in the Highway A Game with relaxed calm instead of damaging nerves, O’Brien, Hillsboro’s Aidan Fleming, or his partner-in-crime Cody Reese? If Hillsboro’s starting QB is less mentally ready than his position-mate, will the Hawks be able to make a switch and still win? FHS rusher Kamden Yates remains a dangerous weapon against Leon Hall’s inconsistent linebacking corps. But if the Hawks manage to stuff Yates, to force a third-and-long, Hillsboro’s potentially elite defensive backfield will loom as an interception hazard for the Tigers’ easier-to-project starter at quarterback.
FHS’s lineup turnover at skill positions is another thread that The Geek wants to investigate. Senior Gus Drinen was among as many as three R-6 standouts who couldn’t go at the end of summer. On Friday, that gives Black & Gold an excuse to mix things up with a “diversity initiative” on offense, which could enable the FHS defense to load up with Iron Men, and stop HHS’s attack. We’re excited to see Carson Grass’ offensive line battle Grant Sucharski and the Hillsboro D-Line once again. But each of those units are just starting to gel at the beginning of fall. It’s a bigger key for Hillsboro to get its running game established against a Festus front-seven that has been alternatively great, and just pretty good, throughout the first four weeks of the season. If Hillsboro’s swift O-backfield reminds Antonio Pinkston of last Week 14, then the Hawks will be doing something right.
Could a low final score occur via a “stalemate” of Hillsboro’s big offense and Midmeadow Lane’s big defense? We can see Trey Zimmerly’s carries averaging five-plus yards against a defense that let its guard down against DHS last week, though Preston Ross won’t waltz open on a Fly Pattern, unless Zimmerly and Jaydn Rice are so explosive between the hashes that even the “Vanilla” Tigers have to adjust and stack the line. Likewise, Yates is the county’s best big-play threat at any moment that an opponent forgets to key on him, but Sucharski’s side won’t forget about Kamden until his teammates make enough plays.
Festus can win because early-bowl-game tactics would be like vitamins for the Tigers right now, anyway. It’s time to get the full backfield in motion and give more touches to alternate RBs Aiden Schirmer and Myles Farries. We’re all aware of what Kamden Yates can do with a ton of rushes, and there is no reason to “Andrew Graves” him until he is banged up in the playoffs. O’Brien wouldn’t mind having Yates going deep to the left, Braydon Wilkes going deep to the right, and Schirmer to hand the bean to.
But it’s the Hillsboro Hawks who need Friday’s victory more. They’ve lost three games in a row to Festus, and would like to rinse that bitter taste away before facing DeSoto, Farmington, and Poplar Bluff consecutively in October. If Hillsboro goes all-out and defeats a wounded Tigers club by 13+ points, the Hawks will be all-but-guaranteed to host Week 12’s title game, in the same location at which they snapped this series’ losing skid. That’s enough to inspire Hillsboro to utilize more of its “postseason” playbook, and score multiple long-strike TDs on a visitor that can’t keep up. PREDICTION: HAWKS 28, TIGERS 22
Fox Warriors at Seckman Jaguars
An unpredictable turn of events has left Seckman vs Fox cast in a far different light than we might’ve dreamed at the start of this season. Anyone who saw the Warriors and Jaguars’ clash early last season understood that Seckman would have preferred a less grudging contest, one that gave QB Brody Kube a few more turns with the pigskin in solid field position. It seemed to be standard knowledge that Fox was always going to try to slow the matchup down, while Seckman tried to build bigger leads.
That script has been flipped in a matter of four weeks. Fox at Seckman 2026 has become an “Opposite Sketch” of a kickoff, in which it’s Arnold that may be hoping for a rock ‘em, sock ‘em shootout, and it’s Imperial that should probably try to win 12-6.
For one thing, Fox has looked a bit more comfortable in high-scoring games since last midseason. The Warriors’ worst experience of 2026 so far was the opposing ball-control of Cohenn Stark’s offense in the Northwest meeting, but they’ve fared better overall during three livelier games to begin the slate. Jude Pribish is chucking the bean around more than Arnold’s QBs often get to, despite being known as a fullback before getting converted to quarterback at 17. Pribish will face another converted QB in The Valley this Friday.
Most critically, the Seckman Jaguars’ injuries behind center give Imperial no choice except to run the football right back at Fox’s running offense, hoping to win the battle in the trenches, and earn Friday’s victory one first-down carry at a time. If LB Ryan Joggerst looms large against a Jaguars’ running back corps which (once again) has not settled on a bell-cow rusher, the opportunistic Fox Warriors will have a choice to make. Play Seckman’s type of game, or mix it up, and blow it open?
If the Fox Warriors blow Friday’s bout open, in any way, fashion, or form, that’s when Seckman is in trouble. Pattonville made a good matchup-team against the SHS Jaguars because the Pirates were always going to bomb for the end zone, no matter how Seckman tried to stop them. Fox needs to avoid the false satisfaction of mounting long, careful drives which don’t amount to a first-half bounty of points in The Valley, because Seckman has a way better chance to conquer a Flexbone team that will kill interminable minutes of the Game Clock, giving SHS its shot to break a late deadlock on a Jaxson Jablonski razzle-dazzle.
What can Fox do, besides ask Pribish to toss a predictable play-action bomb on the first play? The answer is to let the Flexbone flex and stay patient on offense, but to try to do something to surprise Seckman on defense or special teams. Arnold could think about employing the old “Punt Rush” defense against Jablonski’s unit, simply daring the Jaguars to pass until the game has to open up, and Fox’s senior Nehemiah Glanville or another defensive back can potentially snag an interception to set up a Fox touchdown.
If the Warriors play it cool on defense, and if the Jaguars defend their Red Zone like it’s a holy relic, we’ll see that low-scoring winner in Week 5’s crosstown showdown. The lack of point-scoring versus two stubborn defenses could help manufacture another overtime scenario for Fox vs Seckman, which The Geek has to think that the Jaguars would survive for a second straight time, due to the home team’s passionate, enduring support from the fans by Rock Creek. PREDICTION: JAGUARS 13, WARRIORS 10 (OT)
Windsor Owls at DeSoto Dragons
Week 5’s matchup of Owls and Dragons is a curious one. The series history, and the fact that DeSoto had an infinitely better day than Windsor despite each team going down in defeat last Friday, makes the Dragons feel like a solid favorite to win. Yet, each time Joachim Junction has gone up against a superb opposing QB, whether it was Quinnten O’ Brien of Festus R-6, Andrew “Unrelated” Schumer of St. Vincent, or Braydee McClure of North County, the DHS defense broke down. It was only in an encounter with Perryville’s total greenhorn Lucas Buchheit that the Dragons were able to produce enough stops to win.
Jett Black goes in the category of superb. Windsor’s junior QB and his senior RB Jack Kuda combined for nearly 350 of Windsor’s 400 yards on offense in Week 4’s losing effort at Saxony Lutheran. The question is not whether the Varsity Owls have a dynamite offensive backfield in Black and Kuda, or a potent run-blocking offensive line to clear a path for them, but whether the Owls are simply too outmanned in all other areas to give their star rushers a chance to prevail. To repeat what The Geek mentioned in Wednesday’s Power Poll, the Albino Birds are fortunate their next opponent is as familiar as DeSoto, after the debacle in Jackson. Windsor’s kids know by now that they can run and jump with DeSoto athletes. No call for a confidence crisis!
Cannon Kisner’s offense had flashes of clean, sharp form at Festus High, a form that could knock the socks off Windsor’s ailing defense if the Owls don’t get with it. But the factor that could keep Week 5’s encounter closer than last year’s 27-point win for the Dragons is Windsor’s potential ball-control tactics, against a defense that’s still just a little too undersized up the middle. Black’s still due for a night on which his option reads are as crisp and deadly as they were against Jefferson R-7, and a Class 4 defense can only chase and tackle him up on one 10-to-20-yard gain after another. If the Owls soak their heads of the major bummer at Saxony Lutheran, and press their size advantage up front, Week 5 might just be a game of dueling carries by dual-threat QBs.
DeSoto’s role as Homecoming Game host probably won’t trip the Dragons up too much, although it remains concerning that the #7-thru-#12 ranked teams in Jeff County haven’t needed much of an excuse to fare badly against underdogs and smaller campuses this season. The Dragons have done a better job of spreading the word about Homecoming-2026 than a plurality of MSHSAA schools, many of which don’t even mark HoCo on public football schedules. It shows that DHS isn’t scared of the moment.
At this point, even a close loss with a reasonably low score would be a confidence boost for Lee Freeman’s defense. It’s only positive for the Owls that DeSoto’s defense has needed one since 2019. PREDICTION: DRAGONS 42, ALBINO BIRDS 28
Grandview Eagles at Perryville Pirates (Thursday)
This is the sootiest silver lining ever, but – assuming that the Birds of Prey *CAN* avoid more devastating injuries in midseason, playing a superior opponent such as Perryville can potentially help Grandview in two ways. If it’s an encore of a tight contest between the Pirates and Eagles this year, man, what a needed confidence boost for Grandview that would be, win or lose. But supposing it’s going to be a Turbo Clock win for Perryville and/or Jefferson and St. Vincent this season, due to the decimated status of Grandview’s lineup, then OK, fine, let’s GET THEM OUT OF THERE and move on to the next week of practices, hopefully set to welcome recovering players back to the fold each time. PREDICTION: PERRYVILLE 35, EAGLES 0
McCluer North Stars at Northwest Lions
Cohenn Stark, Will Murphy, and the Northwest Lions’ backfield will get ample traction against a spotty McCluer defense on Friday. Without the football, the Stars (not the “North Stars,” hockey fans!) remind The Geek of 2024’s SPX Lancers defense, or 2025’s DeSoto Dragons defense, with a line that’s not cut out to dominate the line-of-scrimmage, to the detriment of several fascinating linebackers and DBs. Northwest’s chore is to stick to the smash-mouth method and gradually wear McCluer North down, while staying careful not to relinquish a turnover and an easy chance for the Stars to grab the early lead. McCluer’s aggressive linebackers look like nightmares to play when you aren’t winning! PREDICTION: LIONS 37, NORRIS DIVISION 14
Herculaneum Blackcats at Cuba Wildcats
This is it, Herky. Cuba’s latest downturn gives the Varsity Blackcats a shot to right some of this early-season’s wrongs. Dunklin’s defense, believe it or not, had an impressive debut performance in shutting out Affton, of all teams, since A) Affton has had a pulse with the football since losing to Herculaneum 0-42, and B) Herky’s D’ sent Affton to the Minus World on the stat sheet. It scarcely could’ve felt any more different when the Blackcats surrendered a 30-spot to Fredericktown, a lack of any outstanding tackling where there had been so much of it to begin. Senior Lucas Mercille’s defense has compiled eight QB sacks, and five interceptions, without cashing in to truly stonewall an opponent. Jefferson’s shut-out of Cuba, in which the Blue Jays ran so doggedly to the ball that nearly 20 Blue Jays posted multiple total tackles, is a blueprint for the kind of teamwork that can rejuvenate Herky defensively at Cuba, now that the weather is perfect for running. However, the 2026 Blackcats have disappointed on the road enough already to make CHS the mild favorite to win Friday. PREDICTION: CUBA 24, BLACKCATS 16
Crystal City Hornets at Veritas Christian Academy Eagles
Crystal City shares Herky’s chance to resurrect a potential letdown season this weekend. Veritas Christian Academy may have to cope with two mental-game disadvantages to the 1-3 Varsity Hornets, the first being the fact that Crystal City is faster, healthier, and more confident following last Friday’s win than the Class 1 JeffCo school that Veritas defeated 40-22 in Week 4. Perhaps if the Eagles think CCHS and Grandview are always about the same (same Class, same County, same Bat-Channel), they’ll be overconfident and vulnerable against Alex Parham, Talon Clayton, and a Hornets backfield that is beginning to mature.
What’s the second advantage? Oh, nothing much, only that Veritas Christian has rarely-if-ever had to play three weeks in a row. Why, the Eagles might think that this kind of schedule is a real drag compared to the once-or-so-a-month deal that the Eagles enjoyed late in summer! Crystal City is used to playing a full schedule of Tackle Football, with hard hits and everything, and Veritas’ players still have to adjust to it. If that isn’t a potential edge, what is? PREDICTION: HORNETS 36, VERITAS 26
Jefferson Blue Jays at Bayless Bronchos
The Geek’s video host Rolynn Siebert calls the Bayless Bronchos “the Brawn-chose,” sounding out their nickname in the same erroneous way that TGG did for years when Bayless pigskin became a thing. The Brawn-chose – or just the Bron-kos – are no longer a pushover, and most certainly not a “reward Friday” for a triumphant Jefferson team which still only matches Bayless’ regular-season record at 2-2, It’ll take a lot of motor to turn the Turbo Clock on. PREDICTION: BLUE JAYS 31, BAYLESS 6
Blowout Gulch: St. Pius Lancers at Caruthersville Tigers
This matchup would seem to offer a perfect gauge of how far St. Pius X has come in 10 months’ time. Caruthersville nearly outscored St. Pius on aggregate in two meetings last season, although the Varsity Lancers had the last laugh via a 28-14 conquest in Class 2’s district championship round. Friday’s host CHS Tigers are 3-1, with multiple blowout victories on this campaign’s ledger. They were mostly young last autumn. Will it become another outstanding battle in the Bootheel?
Hmm. Problem is, the Caruthersville kids may be having the sort of junior-blues that plagued the Festus Tigers’ promising squad (before they all got injured anyway) back in 2019. CHS defeated Scott City, an unlucky doormat of a co-op since its old coach flew the coop for Sikeston, just 34-21 two weekends ago. That’s 0-4 Scott City’s lowest allowed point-total in four games, despite the Rams having played a better-matched contest against Kelly on the Friday prior. Caruthersville High lost its intrastate debut in lopsided fashion, a stark contrast to SPX’s super effort at Gibson Southern. In short, the Tigers are 3-1 without making any appreciable noise, while St. Pius’ 3-1 record glistens in the sun. PREDICTION: LANCERS 52, CARUTHERSVILLE 14
Photo Credits: Purchased from Rivals, DeSoto Dragons HUDL, Fox C-6 School District Facebook